One of the the highlights of this year's VALA conference for me was the opening plenary by Prof Christine Borgman from UCLA. A video of Borgman's full presentation is available via the VALA website (free, but registration required).
Her talk was a preview of her forthcoming book from MIT Press, Big data, little data, no data: scholarship in the networked world. What I liked most about Borgman's talk was how grounded it was in the social realities of research practice, including researcher behaviour, disciplinary subcultures and the importance of private communication as part of scholarly communication. My reaction to her paper at the time (see tweets below) was one of relief that some of the tricky non-technical issues in research data management were getting an airing at a major conference. Highly recommended!
Borgman showing ToC for her new book Big Data, Little Data, No Data (forthcoming, MIT) - looks awesome #vala14 #p1
— Sam Searle (@datalibsam) February 3, 2014
Borgman: Data are assets but also liabilities - risks #vala14 #p1
— Sam Searle (@datalibsam) February 3, 2014
Borgman - Datasets are *not* publications. Refreshing reminder. #vala14 #p1
— Sam Searle (@datalibsam) February 3, 2014
Borgman - scholarship is more than what gets codified in public outputs. Much communication is private. #vala14 #p1
— Sam Searle (@datalibsam) February 3, 2014
Borgman: data is messy - rights in data unclear, paper are arguments for which data is evidence #vala14 #p1
— Sam Searle (@datalibsam) February 3, 2014
So refreshing to see someone addressing the messiness of data and the lack of definition in policies relating to it #vala14 #p1
— Sam Searle (@datalibsam) February 3, 2014
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